CHINA NOW, the UK's largest ever festival of Chinese culture, launches the first ever exhibition in Britain to explore Manhua - the powerful narrative art form of comics and graphic novels in China.

Manhua are poised to become the next global cross-media phenomenon, spinning off into films, television, animation, games, toys and more. The exhibition will take place between 7 March - 11 April at the London College of Communication. The exhibition explores 19th Century Picture Story Traditions, the Modern Manhua Masters, Hong Kong's New Wave movement and China's Next Generation of artists.

ANN reports that the Canada Border Services Agency has recently banned (PDF) a number of adult anime manga:

The Canada Border Services Agency has ruled in a October-December 2007 list (released this month) that the American re-releases of the hentai anime series Cool Devices and Words Worth (pictured at right) qualify as obscene under subsection 163(8) of Canada's Criminal Code.

Right Stuf is proud to present YaoiAnime.com, where you can find all of the Yaoi, Boys Love, and Shonen-Ai products in Right Stuf’s catalog. Learn a little more about the genre and find anime, manga, novels, and various merchandise covering the 13+, 16+, and 18+ age levels. From hit anime like Gravitation, to popular manga like Fake, YaoiAnime.com and Right Stuf are your number one stop for all things Yaoi!

ANN is reporting that Shogakukan and Kodansha are collaborating on a new bi-weekly magazine titled Conan & Kindaichi to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Sunday and Weekly Shonen Magazine:

As the name implies, the new magazine will feature Gosho Aoyama's Detective Conan (Case Closed) manga from Weekly Shonen Sunday and Yōzaburō Kanari and Fumiya Sato's Kindaichi Case Files from Weekly Shonen Magazine. The official announcement will be made on March 18.

Starting on March 1st 2008, Infinity Studios will be offering ebook editions of all new titles scheduled to be released; available for purchase only through the Infinity Studios website. http://www.infinitystudios.com This includes Zero volume 4 and Sweety volume 3 which were originally scheduled for release in February 2008.

The Anime Pavilion celebrates the otaku (anime fan) culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. Anime fans all over the Bay Area are invited to an exciting day-long programming line-up of live Japanese rock (jrock) performances, an anime theme runway fashion show featuring original anime clothing lines from Japanese and Bay Area fashion designers, an anime cosplay masquerade, as well as additional features from the Fourth Annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration.

February 25, 2008- New graphic novel publisher Dimensional Manga is proud to announce their first release Demon Prince: Children of Gaia, Volume One, is available nationwide this week. Dimensional Manga will release the entire series in 14 volumes with 1-5 released this year.

Story of Two Women Searching For Love And Meaningmidst the Hustle and Bustle of Tokyo A Box Office Hit In Japan

San Francisco, CA, February 26, 2008 – VIZ Pictures, an affiliate of VIZ Media, LLC that focuses on Japanese live-action film distribution, has announced a pair of new theatrical runs scheduled for New York and Los Angeles of NANA, a live action film directed by Ootani Kentarou and based on the best-selling shojo manga (graphic novel) series by Ai Yazawa.

NANA will screen in Los Angeles, March 21-27 at the IMAGINASIAN CENTER and then in New York, April 4-10 at the IMAGINASIAN THEATRE. Press screenings for both locations are also planned and theater information follows at the end of this release.

Iranians and Israelis, Americans, Russians and Chinese, Europeans and Africans Gather to Say a "Good Word"

Hod Hasharon. Israel, February 25, 2008. BuzziNews is the world's first and only online journal reporting exclusively in cartoons. Cartoonists come together from around the world and communicate their positive message to a global audience. The portal has been online for 3 months and has already attracted world-renowned illustrators from 18 countries who have sent in their cartoons.

Earlier this month, a lawyer named Masatoshi Uchida accused Hideo Iura's manga Bengoshi no Kuzu of plagiarizing a novel he once wrote.

Now Mainichi Shimbun reports that Hideo Iura and Shogakukan are denying the alleged copyright violation:

Iura admitted that he had referred to Uchida's novel but denied that he had violated any copyrights.

"Copyrights cover only concrete written expressions. What was published were actual crimes, and even if I used them as reference, it does not constitute a violation of copyright," a statement from Iura and the publisher said.

Country's Mix Of Western And Asian Culture Creates A Growing Demand For Diverse Titles

San Francisco, CA, February 22, 2008 - VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced its continued global expansion with a new distribution agreement with Madman Entertainment to offer a wide variety of Shueisha manga (graphic novel) series to the burgeoning market in Australia and New Zealand. Shueisha Inc., is one of Japan's largest publishers and is a parent company of VIZ Media.

ATLANTA & BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CDC Games, a business unit of CDC Corporation and pioneer of the "free-to-play, pay for merchandise" model for online video games in China, announced today that its CDC Games International (CGI) business unit has launched Lunia, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the popular manga-style comic art form, for commercial availability in North America.

In the audience that evening was Seiji Horibuchi, the pioneering founder of Viz Media, one of the first and largest Japanese entertainment companies to take root in American soil. Horibuchi moved to the Bay Area more than 30 years ago. He founded Viz in 1986. Two years ago, he launched Viz Pictures, a spin-off that focuses on releasing live-action features to complement the mountains of manga, anime, toys and related merchandise the parent company already handles.